Nurses rally, accuse bankers of ‘being responsible for what’s going on at our hospitals’

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A KSTP-TV story says, “Nurses represented by the Minnesota Nurses Association rallied in downtown Minneapolis Wednesday, over a month after their latest picket. 15,000 MNA members first went on a historic three-day strike back in September and have been negotiating with hospital groups across the state since then. Nurses say sticking points are short staffing and working conditions.”

At KARE-TV Kiya Edwards says, “The Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA) says bank executives, who serve on hospital boards, are failing to intervene and hold hospital CEOs accountable for short staffing and other issues. According to MNA, U.S. Bank executives Timothy Welsh, Jodi Richard, and Jeff von Gillern are board members for Allina Health, M Health Fairview, and Children’s Minnesota respectively. ‘They are responsible for what’s going on at our hospitals,’ MNA president Mary Turner said. ‘They are responsible for the failure of our CEOs.’ After making remarks outside U.S. Bancorp Center Wednesday, the nurses went into the building. They then marched to Wells Fargo and went inside that building.”

Also at KSTP-TV, Tom Hauser says, “Most political television ads include elements of truth, half-truth and outright falsehoods, but some tip the scale so far toward misleading half-truths and falsehoods they fail the 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS ‘Truth Test.’ An ad from a political action committee called Heal Minnesota is one of those ads. Heal Minnesota has a TV ad campaign funded by the Republican Governor’s Association, which supports Scott Jensen’s campaign — although the Jensen campaign says it has nothing to do with the producing the ad campaign. The ad accurately states that ‘murders, robberies, assaults, rape’ are all up in Minnesota over the past couple years. The ad goes astray when it assigns all the blame for that to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. ‘But what is Gov. Tim Walz’s response? He pushed to defund our police.’ This statement is false. There is no record of Walz ever supporting or ‘pushing’ to defund police. The ad cites a Star Tribune newspaper article from June 2020 to support the claim. However, even that article doesn’t say anything about defunding police.”

In the Strib, John Reinan says, “The longtime sheriff of Norman County is under fire from a victim advocate who claims the Sheriff’s Office and other local law enforcement agencies are failing to protect victims of domestic violence. Several victims say they were repeatedly threatened and abused even after they got court orders for protection, as officers failed to make arrests that are required under state law when police have reason to believe protection orders have been violated. The sheriff, meanwhile, defends his deputies and said he’s the target of a critic who’s stirring up the community while openly supporting his opponent in the upcoming election. ‘It’s just nuts up here,’ said Jeremy Thornton, running for a fourth term as sheriff of this northwestern Minnesota county of about 6,400 residents.”

At MPR News, Elizabeth Shockman says, “Election signs have sprung up like mushrooms at intersections around Prior Lake and Savage neighborhoods, at the edges of cornfields and lawns throughout the suburban district southwest of Minneapolis. They bear the names of eight school board candidates vying for four seats and point to the intensity of an unusually contentious campaign as outside entities have come into play.  It’s ‘a divided time,’ one candidate has said. The ‘middle ground’ has disappeared, a local parent noted. Another candidate petitioned for a restraining order against a local parent who questioned him ‘aggressively’ on his political views, but the courts turned it down because the candidate is running for office.”

For BringMeTheNews Tommy Wiita says, “Minneapolis officials announced Monday that the new data-driven initiative ‘Operation Endeavor’ to address violent crime in the city is ‘working’ but did not provide definitive data to prove that’s the case. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said data shows ‘drops across the board’ in relation to violent crime, specifically noting a drop in gun-related violence, carjackings* and gunshot wound victims. But the information provided by MPD to show the success of Operation Endeavor is difficult to place in context. The data released in support of the operation’s performance relates to gun crime and service calls between Sept. 27 and Oct. 24, but it is then compared to a mixture of the years between 2018 and 2021, the three-year average from 2018-2020, and 2021 alone.”

For NPR Jonathan Franklin reports, “Nearly three months after a Powerball ticket sold in Pennsylvania won the $200 million cash prize, the game’s jackpot has increased to a now-estimated $1.2 billion. The estimated total is the second-largest prize in Powerball history and the fourth-largest jackpot in U.S. lottery history, according to Powerball’s website. The U.S. record was set in 2016 at $1.586 billion. … However, the drive to get rich off a winning ticket has a dark side, critics say, arguing that state-run lotteries often negatively impact low-income and minority groups. ‘State lotteries are the most neglected example of systemic racism in the United States than any other issue or problem, I should say, in our country,’ said Les Bernal, the National Director for Stop Predatory Gambling, an advocacy nonprofit organization, in an interview with NPR.”

For the Strib, Eder Campuzano writes, “A Minneapolis school board candidate is facing calls to drop out of the race days ahead of the election amid allegations she endangered her stepchildren on a recent trip to visit colleges in Maryland. KerryJo Felder is running forone of two at-large seats on the school board. She’s married to the father of two students in the district and refers to herself as their ‘bonus mom.’ The children’s mother, Vann Daley, in a Facebook post published Oct. 24 accused Felder of nearly causing a car wreck while she was allegedly intoxicated by ‘assaulting everybody including my ex while he was driving.’ Reached for comment Wednesday, Felder declined to answer questions from the Star Tribune.”